Post on "placemaking" in Mississauga centre

[scarberiankhatru]

"At it's widest, MCC is only 2km wide"

No one walks from Bloor to Queen in Toronto...are they gonna do it in Mississauga?

 

[drum118]

No one walks from Bloor to Queen in Toronto...are they gonna do it in Mississauga?

I do this no less than 20 times a year compare to walking from my place to Sq One that is only a 25 minute walk away. I may do that Sq One walk about 5 times a year and there nothing to see as I walk.

Mississauga should stay on the wall of SHAME.

The new plan falls short as what should be done in the core. My purse is empty.

MCC is less than 2km wide

Burnhamthrope is getting builtout sidewalks at the intersection or 4 place, but still to wide. Not much room length wise for transit and they are for only 40' buses only.

Layover bays are being built for the lane that is being taken out of service to provide more parking space. More cars for the core.

Transit is really missing and will be for years to come and that is the reason for more parking spaces.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

scarberian:

No one walks from Bloor to Queen in Toronto...are they gonna do it in Mississauga?

I have done that on a number of ocassion, and it's actually quite enjoyable, but I sure as hell would avoid doing that in MCC right now.

AoD

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Yes, clearly, no one has ever walked from Bloor to Queen.

 

[ganjavih]

Bloor to Queen is nothing, I used to do much more than that. If it's an interesting walk, the time passes quickly. If there are shops, cafes, people, parks, nice trees, etc, you don't feel the time or distance. The same distance in a suburban dump would just be painful.

 

[ahrvojic]

MCC does have scale issues, though I have to agree that the main problem isn't really the actual distance, it's the *perceived* distance.

I think it takes me just over 10 min to walk from Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe to the MT bus terminal north of SQ1, yet it *feels* like an eternity since the walk consists almost entirely of cutting across massive parking lots.

Denser development in the area wouldn't change the distance I'd have to walk, but it would definitely take my mind off of it!

 

[adma]

How about Vaughan Mills, where it's practically a Bloor-Queen scaled walk *all indoors*?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I walk almost 2km home from the bus many nights. Suburban walks are quite a bit faster than urban walks.

 

[ahrvojic]

Suburban walks are quite a bit faster than urban walks.

Good point. I suppose walks around MCC would indeed take longer if there wasn't so much empty space to take advantage of.

 

[Mike in TO]

No one walks from Bloor to Queen in Toronto...are they gonna do it in Mississauga?

I walk that all the time... did so just yesterday - I always feel guilty paying the TTC to only take the subway just a couple of stops, so I often walk a few stops on either Yonge or Bloor.

 

[adma]

Metropass, or lack thereof, often affects such decisions.

 

[dashingdan]

Indeed. I've never had a Metropass, so I've walked from Bloor to Union many times, and Queen is even closer than that. Of course in the winter Bloor to Union isn't all that pleasant, so I'd walk to Queen and then take the path. People who won't walk the short distance from Bloor to say Queen piss me off. My ex-boyfriend liked to take the subway two stops. To me it's a waste of money.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"People who won't walk the short distance from Bloor to say Queen piss me off."

Then I guess 95% of people piss you off. And most of the other 5% won't walk if there's ice on the ground and it's freezing and they're carrying lots of stuff and they're late for work or for meeting someone or whatever. Of course some people walk very far distances, especially when they're a twentysomething urbanite with time on their hands - I've been known to walk from Lawrence to Lakeshore just because I felt like walking, and, yes, I have a Metropass - but in reality, you don't expect people these days to walk from Bloor to Queen.

And if you're not gonna walk 2km downtown, where the walk is almost entirely pleasant, who's gonna want to cross Hurontario and wander around the Square One parking lots and trudge alongside amenities complexes and muddy gravel paths beside construction sites? Mississauga's intentions are pretty good, but I just don't think master-planned "pedestrian-friendliness" ever works anywhere near as good as the watercolour site plans with swooping arrows claim it'll be.

 

[doady]

I don't really see how MCC would be any better if it was smaller. Personally, i think MCC is too small; the surrounding subdivsions were planned very poorly,

And yes parking lots and construction sites would be really bad if they were permanent, but luckily they are not. If "master-planned" pedestrian-friendliness doesn't work, if the car will always rule, then is there any point for suburbs to build anything other than traditional tract housing and business parks? Probably not.

And maybe that's true. Maybe it is not possible to outer suburbs to have a pedestrian environment, so they shouldn't bother trying.

 

[jeicow]

I have a Metropass - but in reality, you don't expect people these days to walk from Bloor to Queen.

So it's the urban equivlant to driving everywhere. Looks like the city neighbours are just as lazy as their suburban counterparts.